Madrid - The Spanair MD-82 passenger plane that crashed in Madrid on August 20, killing 154 people, already had problems with wing slats that help provide takeoff lift, El Mundo reported Saturday.

The Spanish newspaper said the technical logbook showed that two days before the crash, defects had been detected twice within a few hours in the mechanism operating slats in the wings' leading edges.

Already 11 days before the crash a defect had been registered. In all three cases, pilots had reported that the slats had not deployed properly.

There has already been speculation about the problem being a possible cause of the crash. An official report by the commission of inquiry into the crash near Madrid airport is still being compiled.

El Pais newspaper has already reported that the pilot of the ill- fated aircraft had expected the airline to switch the plane after discovering a technical problem just before take-off.

Captain Antonio Garcia Luna, who was among those killed, had asked an airport company employee to arrange for buses to take passengers to a new aircraft, the daily quoted an employee as telling police.

Garcia Luna had been about to take off when he noticed that a gauge measuring external temperature was not in order. He took the plane back to the hangar and asked technicians to inspect it.

The Spanair headquarters in Palma de Majorca said another aircraft was available if the technicians deemed a switch necessary, El Pais quoted judicial sources as saying.

The technicians, however, gave the plane the green light for its flight to Gran Canaria and it took off, crashing off the runway immediately afterwards. (dpa)